Webcomics and video games have natural crossover appeal. Gamers have enjoyed comic adaptations of everything from Halo to Angry Birds and comic book fans have loved playing games adaptations of their favorite comics from the Batman: Arkham series to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Until today, there has never been a webcomic based on a mobile game in the sports genre, but thanks to Com2uS and Tapastic that is about to change.

Com2uS, the developer and publisher of bestselling mobile game Golf Star, today announced a partnership with Tapastic, the leading publisher and distribution platform for webcomics, to publish an original webcomic based on Golf Star characters. This marks the first webcomic that is based on a sports-genre mobile game.

In the past, many popular video games have been inspired by comic books (and vice versa), but these visual stories have typically focused on the genres of action/fantasy/sci-fi games, and most of the video games were limited to the console format. The new “Golf Star” webcomic from Com2uS and Tapastic is the first webcomic of its kind for the new era of mobile gaming, while bringing together webcomics and mobile gaming beyond the genres of sci-fi/action. Tapastic and Com2uS are creating new methods of visual storytelling to cross-promote sports genre mobile games and online comics, in a way that will expand the cultural intersection between gaming and comics while creating stronger mobile platforms for both of these creative media.

Golf Star is a high-resolution 3D graphic mobile golf game for the iOS and Android that is renowned for its vivid graphics, realistic golfing techniques and golf environments, and physics-based gameplay. The Golf Star webcomic on Tapastic tells the story of ‘David,’ one of the main characters of the Golf Star game, who is haunted by the loss of his parents as a child and who goes on a mysterious journey with the help of a few friends and some mystical natural forces.

The comic artist who developed the series is a South Korean artist known as Mir.,k, creator of the original series “Tomorrow” – part ofTapastic’s network of independent webcomics creators.

“We are thrilled to bring another unique experience to Golf Star users through our partners at Tapastic,” said Don Lim, GM of Com2uS. “Golf Star has over 7 million users in the U.S. and we see this partnership with Tapastic as a way to expand the world of Golf Star for our loyal Golf Star fans, while also finding new users via Tapastic’s online platform. Our new Tapastic webcomic gives us a great opportunity to think creatively in terms of connecting with our Golf Star users by creating unique backstories for the characters that our users love from the Golf Star game.”

“We see this partnership with Com2uS as an ideal opportunity not only for cross-branding, but for expanding the sense of creative possibilities in the genre of game-based webcomics,” said Chang Kim, founder and CEO, Tapastic. “The Golf Star webcomic is an ideal model for how other gaming companies can use Tapastic’s community of independent comics creators to create their own marketable, viral stories for fans – and webcomics can become a new and different type of product placement marketing campaign. We believe in the idea of creating promotional webcomics that stand-alone as compelling stories inspired by a product. The most successful licensed webcomics, whether they’re based on a game or a movie or a TV show, tend to expand the worlds created by the original content – and we strive to expand the world of Golf Star into this unique new medium of visual storytelling, in a way that rings true to loyalfans of the game, while also reaching out to new audiences.”

You can download the Tapastic iPhone app for free from here

Read our exclusive interview with Tapastic founder Chang Kim here